Not too bad of a book, they author gives a number of details I cant remember seeing elsewhere,like Hitler invaded the USSR with only 3300 tanks,that was insane, he really thought the war would be very very short.Of the 4 armies sent into the USSR, this book deals mostly about the central front, with a little about the southern front,and almost nothing about the other 2 armies.He seems to have an ax to grind regarding Gudarian,he never passes a chance to say something negative about him.And he thinks the Russians were clever to let the nazis capture1.3 million POWs at Kiev and Smolensk.He quotes Zhukov as saying that having to round up and disarmthat many troops bought time for the Russians.Yet earlier, when Zhukov said it was a pity Kiev would be lost,Stalin was surprised and angry.He didnt like that defeatist tone and demoted Zhukov,it was only after Kiev did fall and Stalin saw that Zhukovwas reading the situation better than Stalins other generals,that Zhukov was reinstated. Zhukov wrote his thoughts many years after the warand I think he was rewriting history to make himself look more clever.And less like a butcher for letting so many brave, naive, troops,go to an unpleasant end.At the end of the book the author tries to second guess Hitler and wonder if hed not made the late fall push to Moscow,maybe hed have won. The author didnt think thatd made a difference,but hes as misguided as Hitler.The way to win a war is to destroy the enemies armies.Reducing cities to rubble was a totally useless waste of effort,and gave Stalin his chance to win.The northern army, and the southern most army accomplishednothing of value.An army sitting outside Leningrad for 900 days was a useless waste of resources.The same for the army that went into the Caucaucus,and the army that fought to capture the rubble at Stalingrad.Unlike the invasion of France, when strong force was directed at a single critical position in relation to the western armies,in the USSR, Hitler used a scattergun approach,sending armies everywhere,with no good result for him.